I'm not convinced your tastebuds change every 7 years, which is a rumour that does the rounds, but there is scientific evidence that you are more sensitive to bitter flavours when you are younger. This speaks to the scientist in me so I feel inclined to believe that the older you get the better a gin tastes. This would explain why I wasn't a big fan until I hit my mid-twenties (it also explains the love of Aperol which I developed at about the same time) and makes me excited that it might taste even better as time goes on. However, I'm still a fan of a sweet, flavoured gin and will happily mix it with an elderflower cordial.
Gin for the win
It's become a firm favourite of mine primarily because it tastes good, but also because a few gin and tonics won't give me half the hangover that a few glasses of wine will. This is a simple joy given only
by clear and good quality spirits due to their low preservative and sulphite levels (I know, you didn't come here for a science lesson, I'm sorry). So when the Gin and Rum festival were looking for bloggers to go along and review the events I felt like it was the right fit for me, although I will admit that I never got around to trying any rum on the night, so this blog is mostly a review of the gin.
The festival is going on all over the country all through the Summer and into the Autumn so I decided to go along to the Nottingham date for two reasons - the first being I could visit some old friends in the city I still really call home, but also because it meant I could preview it before it comes to Reading on September 13th 2019, and therefore give all you lovely Berkshire (and beyond) folk the run down in advance.
The venues advertised on the website are very varied - they're being held in all kinds of places from cricket grounds to college buildings. Nottingham's was held in the conference centre which I hadn't been to before, so myself and two friends ran across the very rainy streets of Nottingham to the front desk of the Nottingham Trent University hall entrance for the evening session which ran from 6.30-11.00pm.
I was underwhelmed by the venue if I'm honest about it. It's a modern university building with very little character, and looking over on the floor from the balcony didn't make the event look very impressive. It seemed small to me, but I could hear a good buzz in the air and I do like to reserve judgement until I've been there a few hours. We made our way down the stairs to be greeted by a lady who was scanning tickets and giving out the complimentary gin glasses, bags and gin&rum bibles which came with your ticket and you could take home (ticket costs £12 and include all of the gifts mentioned).
The bibles contained all of the gins (over 60) and rums available at the festival along with descriptions of flavour, which mixer they should be served with, how they should be garnished and the price of a full bottle. You have to buy tokens which you exchange for a drink at the bar (each token is £5). We decided that 3 each was probably enough given that there were gin stalls dotted around with samples too - don't want mother's ruin to ruin me now do we?! The token station was also the bottle bar, so if you tried a new gin and liked it you could buy a whole bottle and take it home.
Thankfully, the venue did turn out to be much larger than what we could see from the top of the stairs. In fact, there were two bars that we didn't see when we walked I;, one for gin and one for rum, each with three different sections. The gins were split into the three sections based on their position in the bible - British gin, world gin and flavoured gin. With all of the bible and tokens in hand we sat down to choose our first drinks and agreed not to duplicate each others so we could have a sip of each and try as many as possible.
The flavoured gin queue seemed to be the biggest, which is unsurprising as it does seem to be on the rise in the UK and you could have unusual flavours like cherry bakewell and marshmallow. However, a fan of a queue I am not, so I went for a colour changing world gin to start and watched some ladies dance in front of the DJ while I waited for my friends.
Magical gin
The gin started out with an indigo blue colour, almost like denim, and when you added tonic or lemon (basically anything acidic) the gin turned a lovely lilac colour. It didn't taste of anything more exotic than a regular G&T but the colour change was pretty cool. My friend had a Malfy at the same time which was incredibly sharp with lemon - a new favourite of mine. We wandered while we drank and tried a sample at a stand, but the queues were pretty long so we didn't manage any others but maybe that's for the best or I'd have been piddled and my memory for this post would be far less lucid.
I feel like I should commend the festival at this point for supporting local businesses. They had the Street Food Guy in to provide the most amazing smelling food and my absolute favourite Nottingham business Doughnotts were providing an array of doughnuts, including a cherry and gin bakewell doughnut and a rum and raisin doughnut. I'd had dinner before I came out so I never indulged in the street food but of course, in true BerkandBite style, the doughnuts made my night and the biscoff doughnut was pudding. But on a serious note, for a festival which is so large that I can't count the number they're holding on both hands I thought this was great and I hope that this is a feature of the Reading festival too. There are so many great independent businesses that could provide food to the many festival-goers in Reading and I have faith that some will be asked to appear.
With pudding down, it was time for another gin so I went for an award winning British gin this time, the Old Tom Gin from the Sacred Spirits Company, a World's Best Old Tom Gin, from the World Gin Awards 2019. The barman told me that this one can be served with regular tonic or the lemon and salt tonic. I scrunched my face as I kind of wanted to try this fancy sounding tonic, but I feared that if I didn't like the drink I wouldn't be able to figure out if it was the gin or tonic I didn't like. We concluded that it would probably go well with tequila and I went for the normal tonic, but I've made a mental note to try the lemon and salt in the future - let me know if you've tried it!
If you don't like liquorice then this one is not for you, but I've always loved Liquorice Allsorts since I was small. But would I have named this as the world's best? I'm not sure. Maybe my pallet searches for something else in a gin, because yes it was lovely but it didn't blow my mind - but then what do I really know?
By gin number 2 I started to realise that some of the gin stands were packing up and leaving already, which didn't seem very fair given the fact that the festival wasn't due to end until 11pm (this would be around 9.45pm). I understand that it was late and they'd been there all day, but I couldn't help feeling slightly cheated since a day ticket would have given you access to them for your entire session, but for the same price in the evening you might not get a chance to speak to them as they left before your session ended.
I figured that my final gin should really be a flavoured one, since I hadn't yet had the patience to wait for one. Luckily by 10pm the queue had quietened down so I was pretty satisfied with my decision to leave it until the end. I grabbed an orange Whitley Neil since I absolutely love the Aber Falls Marmalade gin and hoped it would be just as good. I didn't quite like it as much as the Aber Falls but it was still lovely.
The lights came up promptly at 11pm, so I donated my glass to my friend as I was pretty sure it wouldn't make it back to Reading in one piece and we headed out to another bar which has over 50 gins behind the bar to choose from, as if I hadn't had enough. We mulled over what we thought of the evening and came to the conclusion that £12 was pretty good value when you consider you got a free glass, and I loved that there was no plastic in sight. I also feel like I'd use my gin bible again and have kept it so I can remember which ones I tried and which ones I liked, but the bag was ditched shortly after I left as I honestly can't think of a time when I'd use it again.
The set up was fantastic, and I loved that they had a DJ which meant people were up and dancing into the night. The way they separated the gins made it easier to choose, shorter and more disperse queues and I liked that it made it logical to have one from each section. I didn't have a single gin that night that I'd ever had before and I've taken note of which my friends like so I can buy some good presents in the future.
If you're a gin fan then you'll most certainly have a good time, but maybe get an afternoon ticket if you want to make the most of chatting to the sellers at the stalls and trying some samples.
The Gin and Rum Festival will be held on 13th September 2019 at Reading's Great Hall
What did we try and what were they like?
World ginsMalfy con limone - tasty, strong lemon flavours
Empress 1908 Gin - Colour changing gin - an average gin that changes colour - a good showstopper to look at
West Winds Sabre Gin - citrussy
Wenneker Elderflower - strong with elderflower which is one of my favourite things to put with gin
British gins
Sacred Old Tom - award winning, notes of liquorice
Cygnet welsh gin - made in Swansea and has subtle notes of grapefruit
Flavoured gins
Whitney Neil Orange - won a silver award. tastes exactly as it says - of orange. If you like an aperol you'll like this
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